


Widow Beats

by CaptainKirby



Series: My Soul Your Crossover [3]
Category: Angel Beats!, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Crossover, Cute, Dogs, Hinata Can't Catch a Break
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-16
Updated: 2015-12-19
Packaged: 2018-05-07 00:11:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5435954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainKirby/pseuds/CaptainKirby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Usually, new recruits to the SSS are useless. However, one day a professional spy found her way to the Afterlife, and into the "Rage Against the Angel Battlefront". Looks like Natasha Romanov found her dream posthumous job: fighting against god.<br/>Oh, this is going to be good.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A New Challenger Has Arrived!

**Author's Note:**

  * For [that_one_kid](https://archiveofourown.org/users/that_one_kid/gifts).



> Because I promised someone a Natasha Romanov, Angel Beats crossover a month and a half ago.

One thing that gets on my nerves about recruiting people for the SSS, is that they always show up in the middle of an operation. It doesn't matter whether we're going to the Guild, getting lunch tickets, or satisfying Yurippe's sadistic side, they always show up when it's the least convenient. So I always have to give the "hello, my name is Hinata. You're dead. And welcome to the Afterlife!" speech over the sound of gunfire.

Although, I guess there was one girl who showed up at a nice time. It was still in the middle of an operation, but she was more useful than not.

Nothing special was happening that night, just running through Operation Tornado again. You know you're a part of a bunch of lunatics when you need to set up an entire operation just to eat. And it's not like this is a simple thing either. We need our Diversion Division to play music to attract all of the students to the gym for us to steal their lunch tickets. The rest of us stand outside, armed to the teeth with assault rifles, knives, snipers, and bazookas. Also, did I mention that we're all high school students? Welcome to a normal day in the Afterlife.

The band started to play that magnificent rock and roll that is only found in the afterlife. I was on guard like every other member of the, "Rage Against the Angel Battlefront." And of course it was just my luck that Angel decided to try the backdoor, where I was stationed. By myself.

"I swear, Yurippe saw this coming." I muttered to myself. I fired at the little, white hair girl approaching me. Yes Angel is a little girl. She does not have wings, or a halo, or a celestial aura. But what she did have was this expressionless look on her face that creeps me out.

I saw a flash of white light, and Angel was fine. A white blade extended from her hand. I hate that blade. That blade hurts so bad. I backed up as I continued to fire. I couldn't call for help, since it takes two hands to shoot Angel, and one hand to use the walky talky. And no one was going to hear the gunfire over the music. Yes, our Diversion Division plays that loudly.

Angel was now only twenty or so feet away. I kept backing up. Operation Tornado never fails. At least not as badly as it was about to. And Yurippe would never let me live this down.

I took another step back, but my foot hit something. I fell backwards onto a girl. Great. Another new recruit, in the middle of an operation. Just. My. Luck.

"Sorry about that." I said as I moved to get up. But the next thing I knew, the girl and I changed places. I was lying on the ground, and she was on top of me. She even got my gun somehow. She flicked her ginger hair out of her face to reveal a set of piercing green eyes.

"Where am I?" she asked. I just kind of stared at her for a second.

"Where the hell am I?" she asked again, but louder, and with the gun in my face.

"The Afterlife..." I replied.

"Is that—"

"Ok, so normally I'd give you the whole spiel right now, but I'm kind of... I don't know... fighting for my life!" I shouted while I motioned toward Angel. The new recruit looked over at the little girl with the white blade coming out of her arm and didn't even flinch. She stood up and started firing at Angel. Not that it was of much use because Angel deflects bullets like a politician deflects questions. When the new girl ran out of bullets, she pulled my backup knife out of her school uniform. I don't know how it got there, but there it was. She charged at Angel. The following ballet of blades reminded me of any time Yurippe took Angel on by herself.

It took me a few seconds to realize that I now had two free hands, one more than I needed to work a walkie-talkie. I went to call the others, but I heard the fans first. Little bits of white fluttered into the air. It never snowed here in the Afterlife, but this was pretty close. I grabbed a few, both for me and the new girl.

"Hey! We gotta go!" I shouted. The new girl exchanged a few more swipes with Angel before she found an opening and retreated. The new girl followed me to the steps leading down to the track, where I ran out of breath.

"Dang... I guess I don't need to give you the 'be more adaptable speech'." I said as I sat down.

And then she pushed the gun up against my head again, "Now tell me, where am I?"

"I already told you. You're in the Afterlife."

"No, what galaxy, or realm, or planet is this?"

I've gotten a lot of different reactions to this, but hers was one of a kind.

"Wait... what?"

"I just saved your life. The least you could do is tell me how to get back to earth. Or do you not understand that there's another world out there?"

"So... first of all... you didn't save my life. Dignity, totally. Life... not so much."

"What do you mean? You said you were fighting for your life."

"Oh, no. That's a joke. It's the Afterlife, so we don't die. Like, you're dead right now, not on another planet or whatever."

The girl's face relaxed, and she lowered the gun a little. She also looked down at her body confusedly. I don't know if it’s because of the clothes, or if it’s because she died when she was older, but something was off for her.

"So, I'm..."

"Yup. You're dead. Somehow..."

"But..."

"That's not fair? Life treated you too poorly to then kill you off without any kind of way to redeem yourself?"

She was about to protest, but I held out my hand to stop her. This is the part I'd done a couple hundred times before.

"Then why don't you join the 'Rage Against the Angel Battlefront'? You've kind of already done it... fighting Angel and all. But it's nice to make things official." I stood up and offered her my hand to shake. She looked me over again. And then she shook my hand. Her grip was firm.

"I know that it feels a little late for this, but what's your name?"

"Laura Matthers." She smiled for the first time. It was a surprisingly warm smile given that she was pointing a gun at my face a few seconds ago.

"Hinata Hideki. Nice to meet you."

Then, Yurippe started screaming through the walkie-talkie.

"HINATA! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?"

I jumped up an entire stair, and then fumbled with the walkie talkie before I finally hit the transmit button.

"Sorry! I'm out at the track. We got a new recruit in the middle of the mission." I replied.

"A new recruit? Oh. Then bring her up."

I sighed, "Got it."

"And Hinata?"

"Yeah?"

"TELL ME NEXT TIME!"

"Ok, ok." I put the walkie talkie away, "Let's go. I don't want to keep Yurippe waiting." After she gave me my gun back, Laura followed me to the Anti-Angel Headquarters. In the hallway leading there, we met up with Noda.

"So this is the new meat?" he asked.

Laura extended her hand, "Laura."

"Noda." He shook it, and then glared at me, "You kept Yurippe waiting."

"I know, I know. I had to explain the whole 'being dead' deal to her." I pointed to Laura. We paused in front of the door.

"Still, it's not ok to—"

"Don't open that!" I shouted as I pulled Laura back. She had already turned the doorknob, but thanks to my reflexes, the wrecking ball missed us. Sadly, Noda got a face full of pain, and a three story fall. Laura blinked a few times.

"He'll be fine. That happens to him, like, once a week."

"Ok..."

"You need to say the pass code." I walked up to the door and said, "There is no God, Buddha, or Angel."

I opened the door to a the Anti-Angel Headquarters, which is really just the principal's office that we took over. Yeah, it's kind of a pathetic HQ. Even Laura looked disappointed. Snacks and weapons lay scattered about the room. A couch sat up against a wall, spotted with coffee stains. The only official looking part was the principal's desk, but that was spoiled by Yurippe sitting on it instead of in the chair behind it. It also doesn't help that Yurippe, the leader of the SSS, is a seventeen year old girl with pink hair. Looks kind of ridiculous.

"Hinata! You had me concerned that we lost some of our lunch tickets."

"Yeah, totally unconcerned for my safety or anything."

"It's not like you're going to get yourself killed. Is this the new girl?" Yurippe nodded toward Laura.

"Yes. I'll be joining your cause." she said as she walked forward.

"Great. I'm Yuri Nakamura, but everyone calls me Yurippe. What's your name?"

"Laura Matthers." Laura smiled that warm smile again. She seemed to accept things pretty well. She'll get along well with the others. But, even so, Yurippe paused before they shook hands.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

Laura was taken aback, "I would think I know my own name."

"Yeah, yeah. But are you sure it's Laura?"

"I don't know what you mean."

Yurippe retracted her hand. She gave Laura a knowing smirk before she vaulted over the principal's desk and pulled up a computer.

"What are you doing?" Laura asked.

"I'm just checking." Yurippe replied. She typed a little more, and then jumped back over the desk.

"Welcome to the SSS, Natasha Romanov." Yurippe said as she offered her hand again. Laura... er, Natasha's smile died, and I saw that same expression she had while she was fighting Angel. She pulled out my knife. Then, I heard the sound of it sticking into the wall. Yurippe also had her knife out.

"Wow, I don't know if I'm impressed with your skills, or if I should be worried that you just tried to kill me." Yurippe said.

"How did you—"

"It's called a school manifest? There was only one new entry. Not that hard to figure out." Yurippe put her knife away, "Now, let's try this again."

She held out her hand again, "Welcome to the SSS, Natasha Romanov."

Natasha shook it. No fancy knife tricks this time.


	2. Stories of an Interesting Past

The next day, Yurippe introduced Natasha to the rest of the "Rage Against the Angel Battlefront", except to Shiina. She wanted to train that morning. Natasha remained fairly straight faced and serious the entire time. No charming smiles or other kinds of facades.

Fujimaki, the resident punk, leaned over and whispered in my ear, "She's exactly like Shiina."

".... so, Hinata. I want to you to show Natasha around today.  She'll probably catch on pretty quickly, but hey. It's kind of the polite thing to do." Yurippe said.

"Got it."

"Alright, you guys are dismissed for today."

Natasha walked toward me, "Let's go, tour guide."

Fujimaki was shocked. "Never mind. She's nothing like Shiina."

"How so?"

"She talks."

"Good point..."

"I don't have all day." Natasha called from the door. I sighed as I got up. This was my life, getting ordered around by girls. Most of the time it's just Yurippe, but now the new girl's started too.

"I'm coming, I'm coming."

I showed Natasha around the school without much fanfare. She seemed to take note of every corridor, window, and stairway, but not any of the things like most people would care about like... I don't know... where the classrooms and bathrooms are.

We finished in time to have lunch with the rest of the battlefront. I didn't pay too much attention to which meal ticket I gave her, so I was surprised when I saw her bring back the Mabou Tofu.

"Oh crap. I'm sorry. I'll get you another ticket."

She gave me a confused look, "Why?"

"You don't want to eat that. It hurts worse than getting shot. Trust me on this."

"Really?"

"Really." The other battlefront members nodded in violent agreement with me. Natasha shrugged and took a bite anyways. We gasped.

"Hmm. It's kind of spicy."

"Who are you?" Matsushida, the resident foodie, asked.

"Natasha Romanov. Weren't you paying attention?" she replied between spoonfuls.

Takamatsu, the resident guy with glasses, pushed up his spectacle. "What kind of a past could someone have that could let them withstand the horrors of the demonic mabou tofu?"

"Hey, guys. You know its rude to ask someone about their lives." I replied.

"It's fine.  I'll tell you. But it's a long story."

"We have time." Fujimaki replied.

Natasha took another bite of her food, "I was a part of a team called the Avengers. We were a group of super heroes assembled to fight against anything that threatened the safety of earth."

"Wait, so you have super powers?" Ooyama, our resident... person, asked.

"No... not all superheroes have superpowers."

"But the others had super powers, right?" Matsushita prompted.

"Yeah. There was a genetically enhanced soldier, a scientist that turned into a rampaging green monster, Robin hood but with cooler arrows, a god, and a cocky bill—."

"Wait, you fought alongside God?" Yurippe asked. She seemed to appear out of nowhere, like the mere mention of God teleported her there.

"Yes. Thor to be specific."

"There's more than one?"

"Correct again. I fought with Thor, against his brother Loki."

Yurippe's eyes shrank, "I have to lure out a whole family?"

"You have to what?"

"Don't mind her. Please, Natasha, go on." Takamatsu said.

"That's all there is to the story."

"You still haven't explained why you got to be a part of the team." I replied.

"I was asked to join."

"No, not like that. It's pretty obvious that you're different, but I want to know how. Somehow you're on the same level as a god. And I've spent the last few years simply fighting an angel.  And I've been losing. Hell, twenty of us have been losing."

"Oh, that's what you mean. I guess I'm just a good spy. That's all." Oh, that couldn't have been all.

"But how did you die? I would think that you'd be pretty hard to kill as a part of that team." Fujimaki replied.

"I don't know."

"You're kidding. It's like all we get are amnesiacs now a days." I complained.

"What did you do before you joined the Avengers?" Ooyama asked.

"I... I don't need to talk about that." Natasha replied. And Story Time with Natasha Romanov was over. Smooth move Ooyama.

 

 


	3. Shiina Finally Finds Her Partner

Two days later, Yurippe called me into the Anti-Angel HQ at the ungodly hour of six o'clock in the morning. I protested at first, but she used her own excitement as a reason for why it couldn't wait. I slogged over, focusing mostly on keeping my eyes open. When I got there, Yurippe had pulled a screen down behind the principal's desk. Lusa, an incredibly quiet girl with white hair, stood next to Yurippe.

"Hinata, Hinata, Hinata!"

"What? What is it that could be so im-freaking-portant at six o'clock in the goddamned morning?" If you haven't noticed, I'm not a morning person.

"You have to see this."

"See what?"

Yurippe pulled up a video and projected it on the screen behind her. It began as Shiina doing pushups in the middle of a clearing on the mountain. Her long black hair touched the ground, even when she was in the up position.

"What's so great about Shiina doing pushups?"

"Wait for it, ok."

Then, Natasha walked into view. Shiina immediately stood and pulled out her knife. Natasha unsheathed her blade as well. The two just looked at each other for a while.

"Mind if I train with you?" Natasha asked. They both put their knives away slowly.

"Fine." Shiina replied. Then they both started doing pushups next to each other. By this point, I was already laughing hard enough that I needed to use the wall to hold myself upright.

"Oh my god. They're a match made in heaven! Literally!" I almost collapsed under the weight of my own wit.

"It gets better." Yurippe replied. She was smiling so wide, I swear she was going to rip her face in two.

Natasha and Shiina started doing the pushups at the same rate for a while, which was funny in its own right, but then Natasha gave Shiina a small smile. She sped up. Shiina noticed this, and sped up as well. After a minute Natasha fell behind Shiina. And then the war escalated and escalated, until they both maxed out at a hundred pushups per minute. That's right, in the bottom of the screen there was a pushup speedometer with a reading for each of them. I gasped for breath on the floor.

And the video was still rolling! I think Yurippe would've said something among the lines of "and it still gets better", but she broke down, and buried her head in her arms on the desk.

Natasha and Shiina stopped doing pushups and started doing laps around the clearing. They raced (of course). I don't think Shiina ran that fast even when she fought with Angel. The video fast-forwarded to thirty minutes later, when both Shiina and Natasha had run out of breath. Shiina crouched down while Natasha put her hands on her knees.

"You... are a worthy opponent." Shiina said between pants.

"You too." Natasha replied. They took alternating breaths in perfect synch. Then, a small little wind up dog, hobbled into view. Natasha and Shiina stopped breathing at the same time as stared at the dog. It hobbled right between the two of them, where it stopped. Natasha and Shiina looked at the dog, and then at each other. They both moved toward it at the same time, and stopped at the same time too.

The next thing I knew, both of their knives clashed. Natasha and Shiina glared at each other as they tried to overpower the other one. After a few seconds, they jumped back, and then charged each other. The ensuing fight reminded me of every Yurippe vs. Angel fight I’d seen. The strikes were fast and precise, but each had an adequate defense. They also moved all around the open area. Shiina even made some good use of the trees, but Natasha had the gymnastic ability to keep up. The music that I played in my head crescendoed as they moved back to the middle of the clearing. They circled around the dog, delivering striking after riposte after lunge. Eventually, they both went for the same attack, and tried to block the other simultaneously. Their knives flew out of their hands, sticking into the ground ten feet away.

The standoff resumed. They stared each other down again. And then, another dog wandered into the clearing. It stopped right next to the first dog. Natasha and Shiina reanalyzed the scene, and nodded. They slowly took one dog each and stroked it a few times. After about a minute of silent petting, they simultaneously let out a small noise.

“Cute!”

And there I went. I almost suffocated. Yurippe too. And she’d seen it before. I swear that the video was entirely coordinated, except it couldn't have been, because Shiina never shows her weakness to cute things on purpose. Yet, there it was.

Yurippe and I regained our breath after a few minutes. I only then realized that Lusa hadn’t budged at all.

“My god, that was so worth waking up for.” I said at last.

“What was?”

I turned around to see Natasha and Shiina standing in the doorway. The last shot of them hugging their respective dogs still up on the screen.

“It’s… It’s… uh…” Crap. I couldn’t think of anything.

“It’s not very nice to spy on people.” Natasha said.

“How unwise.” Shiina added. Yurippe and I looked at each other. And then back at Shiina and Natasha.

And then we said, “Lusa did it!”

“Sure, she in no way acted under orders.”

“How shallow minded.”

Yurippe swallowed and I shrieked.

I think it goes without saying that none of the other members of the battlefront saw that video.

 

 


	4. Operation Ransom

A week passed after the video incident, and although none of the other members of the battlefront had seen it, Natasha and Shiina were still pegged down as the perfect couple. The ship name Natiina gained immediate popularity (which I will take credit for). I don’t know what became more dangerous: Yurippe’s penalty games, or mentioning Natiina. Some interesting lynching had been performed, so that's putting up a pretty good argument for being scarier.

Not that Yurippe minded at all. She just continued on as usual. So we were in no way surprised that Yurippe called us in for mission briefing, even though we could see Noda hanging from a noose outside the window.

“We’ll start without Noda.” Yurippe announced. The lights dimmed. The projector screen rolled down. I was reminded of mission impossible. Nothing I hadn’t been through a hundred times before.

“We’re going to kidnap NPCs.”

Now, usually I am relatively unphased by the ridiculous plans Yurippe comes up with, but this was… different. The NPCs are the other students at the school who don’t have souls. They just appeared here, and fill the school. But they’ve done nothing to us. They even come to our concerts. They love us.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because, if we kidnap the NPCs, then we can use them against Angel. She can’t let the students be in danger, so she’ll probably call down God to help her!”

“But—”

“We’ll split up into four teams. The Diversion Division will do one of their normal performances to attract students. Ooyama, Fujimaki, Matsushita, TK, and Takamatsu, you guys are on Team Useless, and you will guard the Diversion Division like it’s Operation Tornado. Hinata, Shiina and Natasha will be on Team Moonlight Shadow, who will kidnap people from the concert. Because that way they would be carried away by a moonlight shadow.” Yurippe paused.

“Really? Nobody gets it? Fine. Your loss. Operation Ransom… STARTO!”

Everyone funneled out to make preparations for tonight, or just get lunch. I stuck around to ask Yurippe some things.

"Is the moonlight shadow thing some sort of well disguised Natiina joke?"

"No... It's a reference. But it still sounds cool without it.”

“And, why did you put me on that team?”

“Because, if I need to communicate with them, you’ll respond."

"That's fair. But this entire operation just feels... Wrong."

"What?"

"What have the NPCs done to us? We've kind of had a 'don't hurt the NPCs' policy. And now we're kidnapping them?"

"Hinata, this plan is going to work because of that. Angel will never see it coming!"

"Ok..."

"Now make sure your team's ready. I want this operation to go off without a hitch."

"Hai hai." I replied as I walked out of the room. Not that I needed to tell my team anything. They were probably more prepared than I would ever be.

I waited around with the rest of the guys until the operation started. They kept joking that I was some sort of player for being in the same group as Shiina and Natasha, but I didn’t joke back. The mere thought of either of them hearing me prevented me from doing that. And before I knew it, the clock struck operation time. There’s not a specific time for that. It’s just whenever Yurippe sets her watch for.

I met up with Natasha and Shiina on the roof of the cafeteria. We wore all black, gloves and ski masks included. Rock and roll shut out the cheers of students. It was ransom time.

We saw our first target approach. She was probably a first year. I looked over at Shiina and gave her a thumbs up. She nodded, and tightened the bungee around her waist. When the girl crossed under us, Shiina jumped. The next thing the girl knew… She was in the clutches of a shadowy figure. But not Shiina. Natasha had beaten her down. She held the girl’s mouth shut so she couldn’t scream. All three of them landed elegantly on the roof again. I pointed my pistol at our captive.

“Talk and you’re dead.” I kind of hated saying this, not just because it was mean, but because it came right out a movie. I’m more original than that. But it did the trick, because the girl quivered silently.

“One point to camp Romanov.” Natasha said.

“This is so stupid.” Shiina replied as she returned Natasha’s smile.

“We got another one.”

Natasha and Shiina readied their bungees again and jumped. This time, Shiina caught a boy with dark, red hair. We kidnapped a four more kids before the night was out, and the score ended in a 3-3 tie. Shiina muttered something about fake dogs being unfair, but I could’ve misheard her. When the concert ended, we headed down from the roof. The others had already evacuated, fleeing from Angel like guys from their girlfriend’s dad carrying a shotgun. In other words, they ran fast. Which really sucks, because Angel didn’t leave. She waited for us at the bottom of the stairs. I nearly pissed myself, but Natasha and Shiina handled it much better. Shiina readied her knives, and Natasha pointed a gun at an NPC’s head.

“We have a hostage.” She shouted. We actually had six hostages, but the number didn’t matter. Angel paused, and then walked away. I sighed.

“Hinata, you’re useless.” Natasha said over her shoulder.

“Indeed.” Shiina muttered.

 

 


	5. Everyone Loves to Scare Hinata

When we showed Yurippe the hostages, she cackled. And when I say cackled, I mean full on, evil villain, take over the world kind of cackle. Our concerned expressions prompted her to stop. Yurippe dismissed Natasha and Shiina to go put the hostages somewhere sneaky. I had to stay, because I always had to stay. Yurippe always had something for me. Whether it was a punishment or more work, it was always me. Never anyone like TK. Lucky.

“Now all we have to do is send Angel the ransom note, and we’ll be god to go!” Yurippe said as she pumped a fist in the air.

“Don’t you mean good to go?”

“No, Hinata. God to go. Get with the program.”

“Ok…”

“And I want you to deliver it to Angel personally.”

“What?”

Yurippe sat the desk.“Ransom letters are scarier in person.”

“But what if she kidnaps me?”

“Don’t let that happen.” She replied.

“But—”

“Here’s the letter. You should take it to her now. Things like this are more ominous at night.”

I sighed, “Fine.” Yurippe smiled as I took the letter from her. I walked to the Student Council Office, holding on to my gun like a safety blanket. Just before I entered the building, I realized that Yurippe forgot to seal the envelope. I went to do it myself, but pulled out the letter first. No matter how I delivered the letter, a typo would make the entire SSS look stupid. And then Yurippe would blame the mission failure on me. I know this, because I know Yurippe.

The letter said this:

 

Tomorrow. 6:00 pm. The track. Be there if you want your students back.

 

Sincerely, You know who

 

It was much less intimidating that Yurippe thought it was. But I wasn’t going to chance it. Now came the scary part. Actually delivering the letter. I walked to the student council room, and peaked inside. Angel sat at a desk facing the doorway. She wrote something down on a large stack of papers before she looked up at me.

“Yes?”

I shrieked and jumped back.

“Can I help you?”

“Y-yes.” I replied as I walked into the room, “You can read this.”

I tossed the letter on her table. I don’t know if she opened it or not, because I bolted out of there before she could even pick it up. At least I didn’t get stabbed. And Angel got the letter. Everything’s fine.

I took a deep breath before I walked out of the building. It’s pretty terrifying stuff, talking to Angel. Bet you TK can’t do that.

“Evening.”

I shrieked.

“It’s just me.” Natasha said as she walked out of the shadows.

“People keep scaring me today. It’s not cool.”

“Well, sorry about that. Could you come with me?”

“Sure, why?”

“We need you to help look after the hostages.”

I gave her a concerned look. What about hostages could Natasha and Shiina not handle? Do they bite? Because even that shouldn’t do it.

"Ok..."

"We need you to get them food and water."

"Oh." There we go,”Why don’t you get it yourself?”

“I’m going to sleep because my watch is over. Shiina’s waiting for you.”

I just get ordered around by everyone, don’t I? Well, I guess I'll just deal with it. I walked over to the cafeteria to grab some food and water. The cafeteria was locked, of course. So, I opened up a window and went in through there. I found a jug just lying around (I don’t know why), so I filled it with water. I pitied our captives, since the only food I found was the spicy mabou tofu. I was just about to leave when I heard the creepy voice of a little girl.

“What are you doing?”

I turned back and nearly dropped everything. What was it with people scaring me? Am I just that easy to scare? Well, I guess Angel would’ve scared me even on accident.

“I-I-I.”

“The cafeteria is closed at night.”

“I’m… I’m getting food for the hostages.” I decided that telling the truth was all I got, “I mean, we don’t want them starving or anything.”

Angel thought about for a second before she nodded, “Then go.”

I ran so fast out of there, man. I hadn’t ran faster in my life, or my death. And I didn’t even check to see if Angel followed me. Not that following me would’ve helped much, because I realized that I had no clue where the hostages were. Great. Just great. But then I thought about it for a second. Where would I be most likely to find Shiina…

 

When I walked into the sports equipment room, I saw two very conflicting images. In the far corner, gagged and bound students wriggled around. A few feet in front of me, Shiina played with her wind up dogs.

“I brought the foo—” Before I finished the sentence, Shiina had a knife to my throat.

“What an oversight.” She muttered to herself.

“oood?”

Shiina sheathed her knife and pointed to the hostages. I had to feed each one myself, since Shiina had to hide her dogs. Seriously, it’s not some sort of big secret or anything. I stayed up with her the rest of the night, silently watching the baseball field for intruders. It was a long, quiet night, that I spent most of the time wondering why I had to do this instead of… say… TK. TK never has to do any of the boring stuff. But the hours still passed on, until the sun came up. Natasha brought the hostages, Shiina and I had some breakfast. It was eaten in silence. I did not understand these two in the slightest. They were obviously good friends, but they rarely said anything to each other. It’s hard to found a relationship on silence. Do they even have anything in common? I mean, Shiina assassinated people in Feudal Japan. Natasha worked as an undercover spy… ok. I take back what I said. They have some stuff in common,

“I’m going to head out. I’ll see you guys later tonight I guess?” I said as I stood up. They both nodded. No sound. Of freaking course.


	6. Operation Weeping Widow

It felt like an eternity, waiting for six o’clock to arrive. And I was actually excited for once. We had hostages (which I still don’t approve of). How could Angel beat that? Yurippe was probably thinking the same thing, because she was shivering when the time came. That’s right, folks. Yuri Nakamura shivers at times. With excitement.

The sun was setting. Shiina and Natasha brought the hostages with them. Yurippe and I stood triumphantly on the track. It was go time.

“We’re gonna see god!” Yurippe eventually squealed.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself.” Natasha said.

“Kill joy.”

“She’s here.” I pointed across the field to the little girl. She approached us with a blank expression. Natasha grabbed a hostage and pulled her to the front. She kicked and squealed until Natasha put a gun to her head. That shut her up pretty fast.

“So, you actually came.” Yurippe announced.

“It’s what your letter requested.” Angel answered.

“Yes… but still. Do you want your students back?”

“Yes.”

“Then show us god.” Yurippe punctuated that last sentence with a maniacal laugh.

Angel cocked her head to the side, “Come again?”

“God. You know, your boss?”

“I don’t—”

“Show him to us now, or I’ll shoot her.” Natasha said. It was the scariest thing I heard all day. Jump scares aside. Her voice was calm, and entirely serious.

“But I—”

“You have until a count of three.”

“But—”

“One.”

“—I can’t—”

Natasha pushed the gun into the girl’s back, “Two.”

“—Contact god.”

The sound of gunfire echoed across the track. Natasha shot her. She actually shot her. Shot her in the back. The girl screamed as she collapsed. Even Natasha was surprised. But Angel wasn’t. She activated hand sonic and darted right past all of us. The next thing we knew, the hostages were running for their lives, and we were fighting for ours. This battle should’ve been highly in our favor too. I mean, Shiina, Natasha, and Yurippe against Angel? Plus me as a warm body. There’s no contest. Except for the part where Shiina was only focused on moving a bewildered Natasha. So, it was me and Yurippe versus Angel, which is really just Yurippe versus Angel. And that’s a fair fight.

“C’mon guys. I need some help over here.” She shouted between blows.

“I’m helping!”

“I was talking to the competent people, not you, Hinata.”

I was on no grounds to argue this point. Shiina didn’t respond, but instead carried Natasha away from the fight.

“Shiina! Get the hell back here!”

Shiina didn’t turn around.

“Hinata, get them back here!”

“Hai, hai!” I wasn’t being very useful in the fight anyways. I ran after Shiina, who was now walking next to a distraught Natasha.

“Guys! Yurippe really could use your help.”

Shiina just shook her head and pointed to Natasha.

“That’s doesn’t help me any.”

“I just shot her. Not even a second thought.” Natasha muttered.

“Huh?”

“Do you know how many people I’ve killed in that same way?” she shouted at me. I put my hands up in surrender.

“No?”

“Too many. Why? Why do I do that? They’re humans…” Well, technically the hostage was an NPC, but that was not the best time to bring that up.

“Uh… Well, it almost worked, right?” I replied. I didn’t know what to do. But Shiina did. She put her arm around Natasha’s shoulder.

“I understand.”

“Right… right.”

“And you did it for the greater good.”

“Right…”

“So, it’s just an oversight.”

Shiina grabbed something from behind her and offered it to Natasha. I don’t know where the wind up dog came from, but suddenly it was there. Natasha took it and wound it up. She petted the dog while it wagged its tail.

“You did the right thing. The right thing just changes with perspective.” Shiina said.

“Cute…” Natasha whispered. Then the stuffed dog hit the ground. And Natasha was gone.

It wasn’t until that moment, when Shiina stood back up and walked toward Yurippe’s fight with Angel (which had spawned some very creative curses aimed in my direction), that I realized something amazing had happened. Shiina just spoke, like five sentences, unprompted. And they were actually different things. My mind was blown. So blown that it took Yurippe kicking me in the head to bring me back to a painful reality.

“What’d you do that for?”

“YOU OBLITERATED NATASHA! YOU IDIOT!” she kicked me in the head again.

“What? No. No I didn’t. Shiina did it.”

“Yeah, sure. Like I’m going to believe that Shiina would obliterate Natiina.” Luckily for Yurippe, Shiina was out of earshot.

“But she did!”

Yurippe kicked me in the crotch this time, “Next thing you’re going to do is blame TK or someone like that. At least take responsibility like a man. We lost everything because of you! The hostages, a shot at god, and Natasha. You are in for one hell of a punishment game.”

“But… I…” I noticed Shiina playing with the windup dog she had given Natasha a few minutes ago. I swear I saw tears dropping onto the dirt track.

“You what?” Yurippe asked.

“Oh fine. It’s not like you have the balls to punish someone else anyways.” I whispered to myself, but she heard me.

“Ok mister. For that you’re getting a week without food or water, plus you have to cook for the rest of the battle front.”

“But I don’t know how to cook!”

“Better learn fast then. If I find a meal unsatisfactory, you’re getting your sentence extended a day.”

“I swear, you wouldn’t anywhere near as harsh with TK, or Shiina.”

“That’s it. Two weeks!”

“Goddamnit!”

 

 


End file.
